The Circular Firing Squad

The Democratic Party is forming a circular firing squad. Paul Waldman writes in  The Washington Post:

Faced with voting rights legislation felled by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema’s (D-Ariz.) devotion to the filibuster, Manchin’s destruction of the Build Back Better social infrastructure bill and the likelihood of losing the House in November, some of the more vulnerable Democrats are searching for anything that might convince the voters they ought to be returned to office.

You can understand their frustration. The House has done its job for the past year, passing one piece after another of the Democratic agenda, only to watch the bills die in the Senate. Perhaps it’s a tribute to a few members’ faith in the wisdom of the voters that they believe that if the public sees them trying hard to accomplish worthwhile things, they might be rewarded.

They're beginning to think that the Republicans will take back the House this year. But that doesn't have to happen:

Only two times in recent decades has the president’s party avoided a major defeat in a midterm election — and it wasn’t because the party delivered well-designed legislation that brought tangible benefits to the electorate, who then flocked to the polls in a show of gratitude.

If Democrats could come up with a really good reason for voters to hate Republicans and fear their return to power — and pound it relentlessly until November — it might motivate enough Democrats to get to the polls to avert disaster. But they haven’t done it yet.

And given the information which continues to come out about Donald Trump's attempted coup, they ought to be mad as hell. We'll see what happens.

Image: American Rhetoric